# The Blue Knight (1973)

> A 20-year LAPD veteran with one week until retirement works one last murder case in the rough outskirts of Los Angeles.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/1105139

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 47 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Network: NBC
- Cast: William Holden, Lee Remick, Joe Santos, Sam Elliott, Eileen Brennan, Vic Tayback, Anne Archer, Lucille Benson
- TMDB rating: 7.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069806/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: gritty, melancholic, weary, tense

## What critics say

Critics broadly view it as a sober, well-acted character study of an aging cop, though its deliberate pacing divides opinion.

## Synopsis

The Blue Knight (1973) is an American network crime miniseries created for NBC and presented as a four-episode limited series. William Holden plays Bumper Morgan, a twenty-year Los Angeles Police Department veteran who has exactly one week before retirement, and Lee Remick plays Cassie Walters, the woman in his life who wants him off the streets. Morgan's final assignment is the murder of a prostitute in one of the city's far corners, and the investigation pulls him through encounters with vicious thugs and with fellow officers whose feelings about his departure are mixed. Sam Elliott and Joe Santos round out the principal police cast. Each of the four long episodes is built around the grind of the case, with the gritty texture of 1970s Los Angeles streets, its rundown neighborhoods and its wary cops. The tone is weary and melancholic, grounded in the quiet cost of a career spent in the job. Fans of Kojak, Hill Street Blues and Columbo will find resonance in its seedy urban atmosphere, its aging detective protagonist, and its single investigation carried through a short run.

## Shows like The Blue Knight

- [Southland (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/16329)
- [Dragnet (1951)](https://ember.film/tv/3536)
- [Crime Story (1986)](https://ember.film/tv/2820)
- [Dragnet (1967)](https://ember.film/tv/41051)
- [The Streets of San Francisco (1972)](https://ember.film/tv/2342)
- [The Closer (2005)](https://ember.film/tv/1366)
- [Spenser: For Hire (1985)](https://ember.film/tv/935)
- [McCloud (1970)](https://ember.film/tv/9577)
- [The Rockford Files (1974)](https://ember.film/tv/899)
- [Ballard (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/156423)

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